Report: Winnipeg Jets sign Julian Melchiori to one-year, two-way contract worth $600K

The Winnipeg Jets continue to add on their farm team.

Julian Melchiori was reported to sign a one-year, two-way contract, worth 600 thousand in the NHL.

Melchiori is now the 14th defensemen the Jets organization has signed to NHL contracts for use between the NHL and AHL team.

There was once a time that Melchiori was thought of as a high-end NHL draft prospect. Like most prospects though, the door has been slowly closing over time.

It was only four summers ago that the Winnipeg Free Press wrote on the Jets loving Melchiori’s upside. Melchiori ranked in the Jets top 10 prospects by Corey Pronman in the summer of 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Melchiori has accumulated 173 games in the AHL, all for the St. John’s IceCaps, where he’s scored 3 goals and 22 assists.

PCS suggests that players of Melchiori’s age, size, and scoring in his 22-year-old season tend to make the NHL 14 per cent of the time, much lower than his PCS percentage 36 per cent.

Scoring though is not a large part of Melchiori’s game. Melchiori is a large bodied defensive defender who skates well enough to move the puck out of the defensive zone.

Melchiori will join Andrew MacWilliam, Brenden Kichton, and any cuts from the Jets one-way contracts for the Manitoba Moose. Together they will be leading the young defensive core, potentially including the likes of Josh Morrissey and Jan Kostalek.